Economies can be classified in different ways and vary from place to place (Edexcel A-Level Geography): Revision Notes

Economies can be classified in different ways and vary from place to place

Economic Activity

📌 A key factor in the creation of a place is the structure of the local economy.

🔗 This affects directly and indirectly the income and lifestyle of individuals and communities and ∴ the identity of the place & how people perceive it

•                    Economic Activity*
  

Classification by Sector

Primary	Secondary	Tertiary	Quaternary	Quinary
Extraction of raw materials	Manufacturing of products from the raw materials	Services	Specialist services such as Law, IT etc	Executives

Employment Types

• Permanent Contracts → Have no fixed date for when employment will end (usually includes employee benefits)
• Temporary Contracts → Set date for when employment will end (usually no benefits)
• Full-Time → Usually permanent contracts (people working 35 hrs + per week)
• Part-Time → Usually permanent contracts w/ a set number of hrs per week which is less than full time
• Employed → Someone is an employee of a company (∴ paid and benefits such as paid sick leave)
• Self-Employed → Someone works for themselves and often earn money providing services to other companies (paid a fee for the work they do, not a salary)

The Gig Economy

🔗 Jobs are short-term, temporary contracts or contracts for self-employed freelancers, rather than permanent jobs

• Often do not have the same rights as the full-time employees in the companies they work for

•                             Gig Economy*
  

Social Factors

There are differences in economic activity (such as levels of employment) and this is reflected through variation in the following factors:

Health

• May be measured by morbidity and longevity
• Direct links between place, employment, lifestyle and health 📝 (eg. people in primary employment more likely to suffer machinery related injuries)
• Places with higher amounts of fast-food outlets & less availability of fresh food (affordability) have higher rates of morbidity - This kind of thing is associated w/ low incomes

Life Expectancy

↳ Avg in UK: Men - 77.2, Women - 81.6

• 2011 census showed distinct N-S variations
  • NW London (Harrow) 65 yr old males can expect to live 6 yrs longer than those in Glasgow
• Gender, income, occupation, education & access to healthcare a key factors
  • Lifestyle choices such as diet and smoking also have an impact

Education

• Educational outcome (measured by exams - not accurate [exams not always good measure as people can have a bad day]) strongly linked to income levels (both in terms of wealth of parent and quality of child education and income levels after education)

Inequalities

↳ High inequality in a place will almost inevitably reduce its potential for economic growth

Pay

• High inequality ↓ a place's potential for economic growth as the benefits of growth do not necessarily trickle down across society
• There is a disparity in incomes and cost of living both nationally and locally (some London jobs pay 'London Allowance' due to higher cost of living
• Those working in the primary and lower-level services receive lower pay than those in more skilled and professional sectors
• Gender gap (avg. men paid 10% more than women)
• Illegal working relies on migrant workers on very low pay and with poor conditions
• Temporary and seasonal work is often low paid
• The people visiting food banks is ↑

QOL Indices

• Globally: HDI used
• In the UK: IMD
  • Helps to inform national and local government decision making
  • Ranks according to a combination of 7 domains of depreciation: Income, employment, education, health, crime, barriers to housing and services and living environment
  • Each of these are based on a further indicators
  • Each indicator is based on the most recent data available
  • Uses LSOAs to collect data (approx 1,500 residents and 650 households)
  • Helps with the identification of small pockets of deprivation